South Asia Seminar: The Future of Food: Science and Politics of Corporate Farming

Devinder Sharma

Fri, October 9, 2009 | Meyerson Conference Room WCH 4.118

6:00 PM

Devinder Sharma is an award-winning Indian journalist, writer, thinker, and researcher well known and respected for his views on food and trade policy. Trained as an agricultural scientist (he holds a Master’s in Plant Breeding & Genetics), Sharma has been with the Indian Express, amongst the largest selling English language dailies in India. He quit active journalism to research on policy issues concerning sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and intellectual property rights, environment and development, food security and poverty, biotechnology and hunger, and the implications of the free trade paradigm for developing countries.

Invited all over the world to speak and share his views on the future of international agriculture, he has the privilege of interacting with and influencing some of the world's important leaders. His strong grip on the ground realities and the ability to weave it into an incisive policy analysis makes him a leading voice from the majority world. He has had the privilege and honour of addressing parliamentary briefings at seven parliaments in Europe, including the House of Commons. He has delivered more than 100 keynote addresses at international conferences/congresses in the past five years. He also uses his regular columns to disseminate the analysis among the masses. He chairs an independent collective in New Delhi, called the Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security. He also coordinates the GM Free India coalition which is at the forefront of the GM free movement in India.

Devinder Sharma was recently honored as one of the 25 most valuable Indians by the magazine "The Week", he blogs at http://devinder-sharma.blogspot.com/

About AID

Association for India's Development is dedicated to promoting grass roots development efforts in India that organize communities for health care, education, small enterprise, alternate energy, environmental action and people's rights. AID is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Visit http://austin.aidindia.org <http://austin.aidindia.org/> for details on the activities of the Austin chapter.